His steel frame stands erect again, moving off the floor like some animated transformer cartoon.
“Move through that entryway, now.” One hand remains targeted on me while the other points toward the door he’s demanding me to walk through.
I’m sort of, kind of, paralyzed. My legs are still locked down.
“If you do not comply, I will bring you by force.” Another smile cranks the gears over his cheeks. “Whether I do so with you dead or alive is the question you should be asking yourself.”
I don’t want to go, and even though I don’t trust a word of what he says to me, I know I can trust in the fact that he could at any moment end my life. “W-will you take me to see my sister?”
He has the audacity to laugh at me, loud and raucous.
I flinch at the horrible sound.
“Your female population astounds me at every encounter I have with them. Does that helpless expression your gender demonstrates aid you in any way with your male population? It’s pathetic if it does.” He shoves me until my legs unlock and ushers me forward, walking through the doorway alongside me. Half of my mind spins, wondering how I could get one step behind him to fire my own weapon at him, and the other half is telling me to keep my mouth closed and do what he says so I could get to Claire.
I just need to find her and find a way home.
The walkway we’re on now is brightly lit. There are closed doors to the left and right of us, all the way down as far as I can see. It’s a cold, metal gray industrial straight line. I decide to keep my mouth shut. This isn’t the sort of place I want to die. And dying won’t help Claire.
I think we walk somewhere in the margin of fifty-six bazillion hours, passing the same identical doors over and over again. Whoever designed this ship had to be the coldest, most uncreative corpse in the world.
Pious pushes me forward until we reach another hallway that branches off to the left. As we round the corner, we’re met with a set of massive steel doors, five times larger than all the others. “Are we there yet? Is this the preservation lab?” I ask. Trying to stay silent for so long is draining me.
The double doors swish open before us.
Through the doors is an enormous room filled with rows and rows of rectangular metal counters. Thick, black tubes run from the ceiling to each counter. The walls are a slate gray, a little lighter and bluer than the rest of this place.
It’s a calming color, honestly.
A nice tranquil color for the women Pious said are inside. At least I hope it is for my sister, if she’s truly here.
But other than the counters, the room looks empty.
I whirl around after we cross the threshold as the double doors swoosh closed behind us. I stare up at Pious and ask again, “Is this the lab? Where’s my sister?”
“She’s here, somewhere,” he sneers.
I move away and grip the top of the closest counter. It’s the coldest surface I’ve ever felt, so cold it burns. Yanking my hand away, I get a glimpse of what I touched and I freeze. At first I don’t understand what I’m seeing. The top of the counter is made of clear glass. Underneath is filled with a milky white, shimmering liquid. And there’s something bobbing at the surface.
Still and lifeless, there’s a woman floating at the top.
I can’t make sense of what I’m seeing.
I stumble back, “What? What is that? What is this place?” This doesn’t make sense. None of it does. The last few weeks—they all must have been a horrible nightmare. I need…I need to wake up.
Pious laughs darkly behind me, “This is the preservation lab.”
“This isn’t real. None of this is real,” I mumble. It feels like something splinters in my brain, and I can’t breathe through the panic. “The preservation lab? The preservation lab?” My voice gets higher and higher until it cracks.
“Of course, Kate, where else would you think we would cryofreeze and preserve all the females?”
“C-cryofreeze? Preserve?” It’s like I’m standing in front of the devil himself. “Why? Why would you be cryofreezing women?”
“Because, we only need them for their reproductive system, they’re worth nothing more.” His voice turns harder, colder. “And when they’re frozen, they can’t put up much of a fight when we take what we need.”
